3. Karmann Ghia Retoration - Hood off and more

Time to look at removing convertible hood off my 1971 Karmann Ghia and at first glance it doesn't look too difficult. There appears to be three large 10mm bolts holding it in place on each side of the rear quarter. However closer inspection revealed what looks like a wire rope passing around the bottom edge of the hood and terminating on each side, near the fixing bolts I mentioned, with a threaded adjuster. So I traced the path of the wire rope and found that its job is to pull the back of the hood into a groove around the body, holding the hood in place.

So I released the wire rope at both ends, expecting the back of the hood to fall out of the groove at the back of the car and allow me to lift the whole back of the hood up. Wrong! Firstly nothing moved. So I used a screwdriver and prised the edge of the hood out of the groove, only to discover that the wire rope had corroded in the middle and snapped long ago and that the hood was only held in place by rust and old age. But the hood still would not lift. So now I lifted the rear corner of the hood and found a webbing strap and some horse hair all held in place with a curved metal strip screwed to the body.

So I set about undoing what I thought were pozi headed self tappers. As you can see, I couldn't move them and after trying cutting slots in them, I finally decided to cut the heads off. To my surprise this revealed a second metal strip with more screws in it and these wouldn't move either. So I cut those off too.

 Now with both metal strips off both sides of the hood I was sure that the rear of the hood would now be free. It wasn't! So time to look inside the car and I found that the headlining was glued to the inside bodywork and trapped under the hinges for the opening rear window.

Well once I had removed the headlining and the hinges, I could now see why the screws in the corners wouldn't come out. Under the headlining were hiding the remains of 14 nuts and bolts that I had cut, thinking they were self tapping screws.

 So at last the rear of the hood is free and I can attempt to remove it.

All that is left  that is left is the six large 10mm bolts holding the hood to the bodywork. These came out quite easily and I now needed help to lift the hood off the car.

And here it is. Close inspection shows one disconnected strut and a main pivot point, that looks as though it should have a rubber bush in it, that has completely collapsed. This leaves me with a small dilemma. I will need to repair the frame before it is re-trimmed but I wanted to leave it in one piece so that the trimmers could see how it goes together. I think the answer may be to call the trimmers and see what they say.




So no I am back at the front of the car and can completely strip the dashboard and wiring. At first I thought that I would label each wire so that I know where it goes when it comes to putting it together again. But it soon became apparent that there was so much none standard wiring that it was pointless and so I decided to just strip it out and try and figure it out when the time comes to rewire. I did however notice that the windscreen demister tubes were completely missing so I will have to source them and try and figure out how they fit.

Right one last job. I removed the front under wing cover plates to enable me to remove the radio aerial and take a look at the petrol filler cap. Well the aerial was easy and came out with no trouble. But the petrol filler was a different story. This picture shows under the wing and no matter how I tried, I could not see how this filler tube is held in place and it would not move. So I scoured the Internet for help and found none. So after cutting the rubber breather pipe on the side and a lot of pulling, poking and prodding, I jammed a screwdriver down the side of the pipe between it and the large rubber grommets at each end and squirted lots of WD40 in. I then pulled down and pushed in on the pipe trying to force it through the grommets.

After about 20 minutes of this and a movement of about 5mm the WD40 started to melt the under seal and revealed a thin jubilee clip around the bottom grommet. Obviously it would not unfasten, but a quick cut with the Dremel and off it came. Once this clip had been removed, the pipe simply pulled down and then out. It's simple when you know how!!

The final part of this job is to remove the petrol flap lock mechanism. This had completely seized and despite all my attempts finally broke its aluminium casting whilst trying to remove it. So I'll have to find a new one of those.

Well that's it for this episode, I'm not sure whether the next one will be tow bar in or engine out but we will see.


You can contact me on hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

Copyright 04.04.17 all rights reserved.


My Other Blogs:
1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html